After claiming an important 20 points in yesterday’s Grand Prix of Catalunya, Valentino Rossi and his crew were back at work today for a half day test at the Montmelo circuit. Rossi shared the track with the large majority of the MotoGP grid, although his team-mate Jorge Lorenzo was still absent as he continues his recovery from Friday’s crash. Having experienced some set-up problems during the weekend, the team concentrated largely on working through those issues during today’s test and improving their package with Donington in mind. As usual there were also plenty of tyres to test with Bridgestone and Rossi set his best lap of 1’41.857 on a qualifying tyre, a time considerably better than his time from Saturday’s official qualifying session. The Italian completed 61 laps and set the second fastest time of the day, behind Casey Stoner. Next stop for the team is Donington Park in the UK for the British Grand Prix on 22nd June. Davide Brivio Team manager “Once again we’ve had a very positive day’s testing, and it’s been good to have the time to work through some of the problems we had at the weekend in order to completely understand what happened. We mainly worked on setting and tyres and, together with Bridgestone, we got some good information that we are sure will help us over the next two races. With qualifying tyres we were able to improve our time from Saturday, so this is also a good outcome. Finally we also worked on our starts, in order to try to improve the beginning of the race for us. We are satisfied with the day’s work and now we’re looking forward to the next races.” Test Times 1. Casey Stoner (AUS) Ducati Marlboro 1’41.533 2. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Fiat Yamaha Team 1’41.857 3. Shinya Nakano (JPN) San Carlo Honda Gresini 1’42.039 4. James Toseland (GBR) Tech 3 Yamaha 1’42.505 5. Alex De Angelis (RSM) San Carlo Honda Gresini 1’42.699 6. Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda 1’42.721 7. Sylvain Guintoli (FRA) Alice Team 1’42.755 8. Randy De Puniet (FRA) LCR Honda MotoGP 1’42.775 9. Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Rizla Suzuki 1’42.782 10. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA) JiR Team Scot MotoGP 1’42.818 11. Colin Edwards (USA) Tech 3 Yamaha 1’43.127 12. Toni Elias (SPA) Alice Team 1’43.197 13. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda 1’43.552 14. John Hopkins (USA) Kawasaki Racing 1’43.630 15. Marco Melandri (ITA) Ducati Marlboro 1’44.326 Montmelo’: Record Lap D. Pedrosa (Honda) 2008, 1’42.358 Montmelo’: Best Lap C. Stoner (Ducati) 2008, 1’41.186 More, from a press release issued by Repsol Honda: PEDROSA TUMBLES DURING CATALUNYA TESTS MotoGP tests, Catalunya, Spain Monday, June 09 2008 Repsol Honda riders Dani Pedrosa and Nicky Hayden commenced a two-day test session at Catalunya this afternoon, but yesterday’s race-winner Pedrosa ended the day in hospital after a heavy tumble at the one/turn two chicane. Both riders had planned to spend the day doing back-to-back tests with the RC212V spring-valve and pneumatic-valve engines. Pedrosa started with the conventional engine (best lap time: 1m 43.48s), then switched to the pneumatic-valve unit, but that outing (best lap time: 1m 43.81s) was cut short by a minor electrical problem, so the Spaniard swapped machines again. It was during this outing that Pedrosa suffered a highside tumble, landing heavily on his back. He was taken to Barcelona’s Dexeus hospital where x-rays confirmed that he has no broken bones, but he has bruised his back and will need 48 hours of rest and anti-inflammatory medication. Pedrosa will not test tomorrow. Hayden meanwhile evaluated both engines. The American was happy with the pneumatic-valve engine’s top speed and rideability and spent most of his time working on set-up with that engine. Tomorrow he will focus on race-distance tyre testing with the same engine. Nicky Hayden, fastest lap: 1m 42.721s (70 laps) “It went smooth today. We tried the new bike, my feeling with it was good, it had some good points. But we need more time to check the bike in a long distance situation. We tried some general setting things with it, and we only using race tyres, seeing what kind of endurance we could get because we had some problems with set-up during the weekend wearing the tyres more than we liked. We’ll run with it more tomorrow and maybe try a new chassis.” Dani Pedrosa, fastest lap: 1m 43.552s ( 32 laps) “The crash happened while I was changing direction in the first chicane. It was a highside and I fell quite heavily. My back and my shoulders hurt. I crashed at the start of my second lap of that run, maybe because the tyres weren’t fully up to temperature. When I fell I was doing some tyre testing with the standard engine. I only did ten laps with the pneumatic-valve engine so it’s still too early to give any comments.” MOTOGP LAP TIMES 1 C.Stoner (Ducati) 1’41.533 2 V. Rossi (Yamaha) 1’41.857 3 S.Nakano (Honda) 1’42.039 4 J.Toseland (Yamaha) 1.42.505 5 A. De Angelis (Honda) 1’42.699 6 N.Hayden (Repsol Honda) 1’42.721 7 S. Guintoli (Ducati) 1’42.755 8 R. De Puniet (Honda) 1’42.775 9. C.Vermeulen (Suzuki) 1’42.782 10 A.Dovizioso (Honda) 1’42.818 11 C.Edwards (Yamaha) 1’43.127 12 T.Elias (Ducati) 1’43.197 13. D.Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) 1’43.552 14 J.Hopkins ((Kawasaki) 1’43.630 15. M.Melandri (Ducati) 1.44.326 More, from a press release issued by Marlboro Ducati: POSITIVE DEBUT FOR DESMOSEDICI GP9 WITH CASEY STONER The day following the Grand Prix of Catalunya gave the MotoGP riders the chance to start a two-day test, with the Ducati Marlboro Team bringing forward a first outing for the Desmosedici GP9 – which was originally scheduled for Casey Stoner tomorrow. With uncertain weather forecasts for tomorrow, Stoner and test riders Vittoriano Guareschi and Niccolò Canepa put the machine through its paces, whilst Marco Melandri spent the day focusing on his GP8 and will test it tomorrow. It was a positive debut for the machine in the hands of the World Champion, so much so that the Australian set the best time of the day with a 1’41.533 on qualifying tyres. CASEY STONER (Ducati Marlboro Team) Best lap on race tyres – 1’42.632; on qualifiers – 1’41.533 “I’m happy with the way today has gone. The objective was to understand whether this new chassis concept has potential and I’d say that for now it looks to be the case. We were quickly into some decent times using the same set-up as the GP8. We barely changed anything to adapt it to the characteristics of the GP9 and I immediately felt an improvement so that is positive. I’m sure that with more time to work on it we can go much faster, although that is not the current brief. We’ll have time to test it in the winter. Tomorrow we’ll get back on my GP8 because we have some important tyre testing to do. There is still a lot of the 2008 season left and we want to be competitive.” MARCO MELANDRI (Ducati Marlboro Team) Best lap on race times – 1’44.326 “We have done a lot of tests with the electronics, set-up and tyres. I’ve found a rear tyre that gives me a better feeling but we’re still a long way from where we need to be. We still need to find something to get back to the kind of feeling I had in China.” FILIPPO PREZIOSI General Manager Ducati Corse “We took the decision to allow the factory riders to test the GP9 because it would have been more difficult at a later stage of development and eventually we’d have had to go backwards in certain areas. There are some things that are possible to analyse with data such as in the engine or the cycle part but other areas where it is absolutely essential to have the riders’ opinions. So it was important to get their feedback to understand if the choices we’ve made have been the right ones and to get their suggestions. Some changes we’ve made to the cycle part could seem more revolutionary than others but in reality we continue to evolve the initial concept that we designed with the GP3. So it’s not a change in the direction of development, but another step forward in the same direction. With the 990 the seat supports and the footpegs were attached to the frame. With the 800 they are both completely separate and on the GP9 the front part is even more dedicated to support and the dimensions become more limited. The fact we’ve used carbon fibre in the production of the chassis is not the most relevant point, it is more the shape that is different from before. Casey’s first impressions have been positive. Tomorrow Marco will try it and I hope his feeling with the new bike is better than with the current one.” Unofficial lap times: 10th June 2008 1. Casey STONER (Ducati) 1:41.533 2. Valentino ROSSI (Yamaha) 1:41.857 3. Shinya NAKANO (Honda) 1:42.039 4. James TOSELAND (Yamaha) 1:42.505 5. Alex DE ANGELIS (Honda) 1:42.699 6. Nicky HAYDEN (Honda) 1:42.721 7. Sylvain GUINTOLI (Ducati) 1:42.755 8. Randy DE PUNIET (Honda) 1:42.775 9. Chris VERMEULEN (Suzuki) 1:42.782 10. Andrea DOVIZIOSO (Honda) 1:42.818 11. Colin EDWARDS (Yamaha) 1:43.127 12. Toni ELIAS (Ducati) 1:43.197 13. Dani PEDROSA (Honda) 1:43.552 14. John HOPKINS (Kawasaki) 1:43.630 15. Marco MELANDRI (Ducati) 1:44.326 16. Olivier JACQUE (Kawasaki) 1:44.927 17. Aoki NOBUATSU (Suzuki) 1:45.011 18. Erwan NIGON (Honda) 1:45.603 19. Vittoriano GUARESCHI (Ducati) 1:46.122